CHAPTER 7 THE POWER THAT CAME BACK

Lena stared at her hand.

Nothing.

The strange silver glow was gone.

She turned her palm over.

Normal skin.

Normal fingers.

No mark.

No scar.

Nothing that could explain what she had just seen.

"Did you see that?"

Ethan didn't answer immediately.

He was watching her hand.

"Yes."

Lena's stomach tightened.

"You saw it?"

"A light."

"Silver?"

"Yes."

She slowly lowered her hand.

For three years after the apocalypse began, Lena had believed she understood every terrible thing that happened to her.

The fever.

The infected.

The collapse.

The violence.

The hunger.

The endless struggle to survive.

But she had never seen anything like this.

Not once.

"Maybe it's connected to the rebirth," she whispered.

Ethan folded his arms.

"That's not exactly scientific."

"Neither is waking up three years in the past."

He couldn't argue with that.

The lodge became silent again.

Then Ethan picked up the SunVolt file.

"We have another problem."

Lena looked at him.

"The lawsuit?"

He nodded.

"You said it happens next month."

"It did."

"But the documents show preparations already started."

Lena walked toward the table.

She read the first page.

Then the second.

Then the third.

Her expression slowly changed.

In the first timeline, SunVolt had been considered one of Cross Industries' safest investments.

The lawsuit had appeared suddenly.

The company had lost millions.

Ethan had dismissed it as an unfortunate business problem.

But now Lena knew something he hadn't known before.

The lawsuit wasn't the real problem.

Someone had deliberately buried information about defective battery storage systems.

And if the information surfaced too late, Cross Industries would take the blame.

"Ethan."

"Yes?"

"Don't invest."

"I already know."

"No."

She pointed at the document.

"Don't just avoid the investment."

She looked directly at him.

"Find whoever hid this."

Ethan's eyes narrowed.

"You think someone inside my company is involved?"

"I think someone wanted you to lose money."

"And why?"

"I don't know yet."

That answer bothered him.

Lena could see it.

In the first timeline, she had learned that knowing the future didn't mean knowing everything.

Changing one event could change ten others.

That was what terrified her most.

Her memories were no longer a perfect map.

They were becoming clues.

Ethan closed the file.

"Then we'll investigate."

Lena nodded.

"Quietly."

"Of course."

He picked up his phone.

"Margaret."

The call connected almost immediately.

"Yes, Mr. Cross?"

"Freeze all new SunVolt investment activity. I want a private audit of every document connected to the company."

There was a pause.

"Understood."

"And Margaret?"

"Yes?"

"Don't tell anyone why."

"Understood."

The call ended.

Lena looked at him.

"You trust her?"

"More than most."

"Good."

Ethan glanced toward the dark windows.

"We'll need people we can trust."

Lena nodded.

She knew that better than anyone.

Trust had killed people in her first life.

Sometimes the wrong person knowing your plans was more dangerous than having no plan at all.

Ethan walked toward the back door.

"Come with me."

"Where?"

"The well."

They stepped outside.

The night air was cold.

Lena followed him around the side of the lodge.

The old stone well stood beneath a large tree.

Ethan removed the wooden cover.

Lena looked inside.

"How deep?"

"According to the records, nearly thirty meters."

She remembered something.

"There's a problem."

"What?"

"The well dried up in 2015."

Ethan looked at her.

"You knew that too?"

"Yes."

He lowered a measuring device into the opening.

They waited.

A few seconds later, the device beeped.

Ethan checked the reading.

"There's water."

Lena stared.

"What?"

"Water."

He checked again.

The result didn't change.

"There shouldn't be."

Lena stepped closer.

A strange sensation returned to her palm.

Warmth.

Then a faint pulse.

The water below suddenly rippled.

Lena froze.

"Ethan."

He looked down.

The surface was moving.

There was no wind.

No rain.

Nothing had touched it.

Yet the water continued to tremble.

Then it stopped.

Silence.

Ethan slowly looked at Lena.

"Your hand."

She looked down.

The silver light had returned.

This time it was brighter.

A thin glow moved across her palm before disappearing beneath her skin.

Lena stepped backward.

"What is happening to me?"

Ethan didn't answer.

He was staring at the well.

Then at her.

Then back at the well.

"We're going inside."

"Why?"

"Because whatever this is, I don't want you standing beside an unexplained thirty-meter hole in the dark."

Despite everything, Lena almost smiled.

That sounded exactly like Ethan.

They returned to the lodge.

Ethan locked the door.

Lena sat at the kitchen table while he searched through his laptop.

"Maybe there's something about this in medical records," he said.

"Medical?"

"Your rebirth changed your body. Maybe we can find an explanation."

Lena shook her head.

"I died."

"I know."

"And then I woke up three years earlier."

"I know."

"There isn't a normal explanation."

Ethan looked at her.

"Then we'll find an abnormal one."

Before Lena could respond, his laptop made a sound.

A new email.

Ethan opened it.

His expression hardened.

"What?"

He turned the screen toward her.

It was from Margaret.

URGENT: UNKNOWN PERSON ACCESSING PRIVATE CROSS INDUSTRIES FILES.

Lena's blood ran cold.

"When?"

"Tonight."

She read the next line.

Access originated from a restricted executive account.

Ethan stood.

"Someone is already inside my company."

Lena remembered the first timeline.

She remembered betrayal.

She remembered how quickly everything had collapsed after the first major financial crisis.

But this had never happened this early.

Someone was moving ahead of schedule.

Her silver-lit hand suddenly warmed again.

Then a single thought struck her with terrifying clarity.

Not a memory.

Not a guess.

A warning.

Someone knows she came back.

Lena looked at Ethan.

"We're not the only ones changing the future."

Outside the lodge, somewhere beyond the trees, a distant light appeared.

Then disappeared.

Someone was watching.

To be continued.....